Sporting CP and Portugal midfielder William Carvalho will play his club football in England next season, Portuguese newspaper A Bola has revealed today.

The 25-year-old is one of the stars that Sporting are willing to sacrifice this summer to raise funds, and he is linked almost every day with a prominent English side by the Portuguese press.

And A Bola claims that Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle would all be willing to hand over around €30million (£26.5million) for the defensive midfielder. Another interested party, West Brom, have already had a €20million bid deemed insufficient and rejected by Sporting.

According to several UK-based journalists, a holding midfielder is not a priority for City this summer, but the links to William have been persisting all year, fueled by the fact that he is represented by Pere Guardiola’s Media Base Sports, the agency that is soon to co-own La Liga club Girona FC with the City Football Group.

One idea is that Pep could play William as a central defender – a position City are looking to improve – as he has done with midfielders such as Javi Martínez in the past.

The only certainty surrounding William Carvalho’s future appears to be that he’ll be a Premier League player next season – but where?